Speech input system, speech portal server, and speech input terminal

ABSTRACT

In order to provide a speech input system for having access from a mobile terminal such as a PDA or a portable phone, or a stationary terminal such as a home telephone, a TV set, or a PC to a network through speech, and receiving a service from a provider for providing map information, music information, broadcast program information, and telephone information, the speech input system comprises speech input terminals  10, 30  provided with a speech input/output mean, and an access status display mean, a speech portal server  50  provided with a speech recognizing mean for receiving a speech to recognize it as a text, a command converting mean for checking the recognized text with a command text dictionary, and separating it into a command text and an object text, and a conversation control mean for having an access to, and receiving a service from a provider which provides different information based on the separated texts, and providing the speech input terminal with the service, and a provider  60  for searching information based on the command text and the object text received from the speech portal server, and serves the speech portal server with a search result.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/192,317 filed on Jul. 11, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,593 which is acontinuation of Ser. No. 10/083,636 filed Feb. 27, 2002 now abandoned.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a speech input system, a speech portalserver, and a speech input terminal, and more specifically to a speechinput system which have an access from a mobile terminal device such asa portable phone, and an onboard navigation system, and a home(stationary) terminal such as a home telephone, a TV set, or a PC to annetwork with a speech, and receive information and services from aninformation service provider which provides map information, musicinformation, TV broadcast program information, and telephoneinformation.

Japanese application patent laid-open publication No. Hei 11-143493describes a system which converts a provided speech into an intermediatelanguage, which is a database language, with a speech languageunderstanding device, and searches a word.

Japanese application patent laid-open publication No. 2000-57490describes a method for increasing a recognition capability for aprovided speech while switching recognition dictionaries.

Japanese application patent laid-open publication No. 2001-34292describes a method for increasing a recognition capability where a wordfrom a dictionary is extracted with a word spotting technique, arequested key word is recognized to determine a topic, and a speech isrecognized with a recognition dictionary specific to the topic.

The technique in Japanese application patent laid-open publication No.Hei 11-143493 is a method to learn a hidden Markov model which convertsa sentence data into a corresponding intermediate language such that arecognition error becomes minimum. Since this method is a learning basedon statistic processing, learning in individual fields is required whenservice is provided for different fields simultaneously, the processingtakes a long time, and the recognition capability decreases. This is notdesigned as a speech input system considering an actual conversationwhich includes mixed long sentences and short sentences. Further, noattention is paid for a case where there is an error in a part ofrecognized string.

The technique in Japanese application patent laid-open publication No.2000-57490 is an invention for a navigation system for increasing arecognition capability while switching corresponding dictionariesaccording to a recognized result, and speech cannot be providedconsecutively. No attention is paid for a case where there is an errorin a part of recognized string.

The technique in Japanese application patent laid-open publication No.2001-34292 is an invention for increasing recognition capability whileextracting a topic according to a recognized result, and switchingdictionaries. No attention is paid for a case where there is an error ina part of recognized string as the two prior inventions described above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a speech inputsystem, a speech portal server and a speech input system which haveaccess from a mobile terminal such as a PDA and a portable phone, andstationary terminal such as a home telephone (Home TEL), a TV set and aPC to a network with speech, and receives services from a provider forproviding map information, music information, broadcast programinformation and telephone information.

The present invention proposes a speech input system comprising a speechinput terminal provided with a speech input/output mean, a Web browser,and a display mean for displaying an access status to an external systemand a search result, a speech portal server provided with a speechrecognizing mean for receiving a speech from the speech input terminalto recognize it as a text, a command converting mean for checking therecognized text with a command text dictionary, and separating it into acommand text and an object text, and a conversation control mean forhaving an access to, and receiving a service from an application serviceprovider which provides different information based on the separatedcommand text and object text, and providing the speech input terminalwith the service, and an application service provider which is providedwith an information search mean for searching information based on thecommand text and the object text received from the speech portal server,and serves the speech portal server with a search result.

The information search mean of the application service provider canextract every (n) characters from the received object text, and searchfor information based on an n-character INDEX created beforehand.

The application service provider includes a navigation informationapplication service provider for serving map information, a musicinformation application service provider for serving music information,a broadcast program information application service provider for servingat least one type of information of TV broadcast program information, CSbroadcast program information, and CATV broadcast program information,and a telephone information application service provider for servingtelephone information.

The speech portal server recognizes a speech received by the speechinput terminal, and separates it into a command text and an object text,conducts a fuzzy search for information stored in the applicationservice provider based on the separated texts, and provides the speechinput terminal with intended information even if there is a partialrecognition error in the object text in the present invention.

The present invention propose a speech input system comprising a speechinput terminal provided with a speech input/output mean, and a mean fordisplaying an access status to an external system, an applicationservice provider for providing different information, and a speechportal server which controls a conversation between the speech inputterminal and the application service provider based on the providedspeech, and is provided with a speech recognizing mean for receiving aspeech from the speech input terminal to recognize it as a text, acommand converting mean for checking the recognized text with a commandtext dictionary, and separating it into a command text and an objecttext, and a conversation control mean for sending the separated commandtext and the object text to the application service provider, andproviding the speech input terminal with information searched by saidapplication service provider.

The speech recognizing mean is provided with a connected speechrecognizing mean, a word speech recognizing mean, and a comprehensiverecognition evaluating mean for selecting either of recognition resultsof said two recognizing means with a speech characteristic valueprovided as a threshold.

The speech characteristic value is a speech time or a recognized stringlength.

Since a speech recognizing engine in the speech portal server comprisesa connected speech recognizing engine suitable for a long sentence, anda word speech recognizing engine suitable for a short sentence such as acommand for comprehensive evaluation, thereby increasing recognitioncapability of speech conversation.

A speech input terminal which has access to the speech portal server andthe application service provider for providing different information isprovided with a speech input/output mean, a Web browser, and a displaymean for displaying an access status to an external system and a searchresult in the present invention.

The speech input terminals are classified into portable speech inputterminals which are integrated into any one of a PDA, a portable phone,or an onboard navigation system, and home speech input terminals whichare integrated into any one of a home telephone, a TV set and a PC.

Since the navigation information ASP, the music information ASP, thebroadcast program information ASP, and the telephone information ASP areprovided as application service providers (ASP's), the mobile speechinput terminals such as a PDA, a Mobile TEL, and a Mobile Car PC and thehome speech input terminals such as a home telephone, a TV set, and a PCare served with optimal information

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall constitution of anembodiment of a speech input system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a PDA serving asa speech input terminal of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a Mobile TELserving as a speech input terminal of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a Mobile Car PCserving as a speech input terminal of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a home telephoneserving as a speech input terminal of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a TV set servingas a speech input terminal of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a PC serving as aspeech input terminal of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a speech portalserver of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a speechrecognizing mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram for showing an operation of a speechrecognizing mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram for showing an operation of a speechrecognizing mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram for showing an operation of a speechrecognizing mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram for showing an operation of a speechrecognizing mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a commandconverting mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a drawing for showing an example of a speech command textdictionary of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a drawing for showing an operation of a command convertingmean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a conversationcontrol mean of a speech portal server of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a navigationinformation ASP of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a musicinformation ASP of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a TV broadcastprogram information ASP of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a telephoneinformation ASP of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a drawing for showing an example of a speech operation menuscreen of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a fuzzy searchmean of individual information ASP's of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a drawing for showing an example of a procedure for a fuzzysearch mean of individual information ASP's of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a drawing for showing a communication procedure among aspeech input terminal, a speech portal server and a navigationinformation ASP of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a drawing for showing a communication procedure among aspeech input terminal, a speech portal server and a music informationASP of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a drawing for showing a communication procedure among aspeech input terminal, a speech portal server and a TV broadcast programinformation ASP of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a drawing for showing a communication procedure among aspeech input terminal, a speech portal server and a telephoneinformation ASP of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following section describes embodiments of a speech input system, aspeech portal server, and a speech input terminal while referring toFIG. 1 to FIG. 28.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall constitution of anembodiment of a speech input system of the present invention.

A mobile terminal 10 and a home (stationary) terminal 30 are availableas a speech input terminal device in the present embodiment. The mobileterminal 10 includes a PDA 10 a, a cellular phone 10 b, and an onboardterminal 10 c. The home (stationary) terminal 30 includes a stationarytelephone 30 a which is intended for a household application, atelevision system TV 30 b as an information home electric appliance, anda personal computer PC 30 c. The portable terminals 10 a to 10 c areconnected with an Internet network 40 through a radio base station 20,and the home terminals 30 a to 30 c are directly connected with theInternet network 40.

The speech portal 50 for controlling the entire speech conversation, anddifferent application service providers (ASP's) 60 are connected withthe Internet network 40 as well.

The ASP includes a navigation information ASP 60 a for serving mapinformation, a music information ASP 60 b, a TV broadcast programinformation ASP 60 c, and a telephone information ASP 60 d.

When any one of the speech input terminals 10 a to 10 c, and 30 a to 30c connects with a speech portal server 50, a speech guidance and a menudisplay are provided on the speech input terminal, and entering acorresponding speech transmits the speech to the speech portal server 50through the Internet network 40.

The speech portal server 50 recognizes the speech, applies the commandconversion to the content of the speech for converting it into a commandand an object to be searched for, and transmits them to an ASP 60corresponding to the content of the command.

The ASP 60 searches a corresponding database, and provides the speechinput terminal where the speech is entered with a search result throughthe speech portal server 50.

As describe above, the speech input system is mainly used for a potableterminal under an environment where a keyboard (KB) is hardly available,and a household where keyboard operation is not popular, therebyfacilitating the input.

A group of servers are connected with the Internet as an overallconstitution of the speech input system in the present embodiment.

When the group of servers are connected with an intranet or a homenetwork, their effect does not make a difference in these networks. Itis possible that different types of ASP group are provided closely, andthe ASP group serves as a cache server which is connected with theInternet server group only when the ASP group cannot provide an intendedservice.

Information services other than those shown in FIG. 1 such as stockprice information, trading partner information, customer information andproduct information may exist in the ASP server group.

The speech portal server 50 may manage personal information, and provideservices according to personal characteristics.

FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 show constitutions of mobile terminals, and FIG. 5 toFIG. 7 show constitutions of home (stationary) terminals. A primary partof the individual terminals is constituted almost in the same way.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for showing an embodiment of a PDA serving asa speech input terminal of the present invention. The PDA 10 a includesan antenna for communicating with the radio base station 20, and acommunication mean 10 a 2 for the radio communication. The communicationmean 10 a 2 can transmit and receive speeches and data simultaneouslywith a Voice Over IP (VoIP) technology or the like. A processingapparatus and a Web browser 10 a 3 are connected with individualconstituting parts and peripherals, and control the entire terminal. Theperipherals include a microphone MIC 10 a 4 for speech input, acoordinate input apparatus (tablet) TB 10 a 5 constituted as a touchpanel, a liquid crystal display LCD 10 a 6, and a speaker SP 10 a 7.

The PDA 10 a is provided with a position detecting mean 10 a 8 importantfor a mobile terminal, and is connected with the GPS (Global PositioningSystem) 10 a 9.

The touch panel and a speech can be used for the operation of the PDA 10a. The processed result is shown on the display, and the PDA 10 a entersa state ready for the next operation.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a Mobile TELserving as a speech input terminal of the present invention. Theconstituting elements are the same as those for the PDA 10 a in FIG. 2.The size and the color display capability of a liquid crystal displayLCD 10 b are generally different for reducing its cost. On the otherhand, different types of software for a mobile telephone is added.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a Mobile Car PCserving as a speech input terminal of the present invention. Theconstituting elements are basically the same as those for the PDA 10 ain FIG. 2. A liquid crystal display LCD 10 c 6 suitable for installingon a vehicle and onboard application software are different from the PDA10 a in FIG. 2. The Mobile Car PC is connected with different onboardsensors, which are not shown in the figure, and may show information ona vehicle.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a home telephoneserving as a speech input terminal of the present invention. Thedifference from the PDA 10 a shown in FIG. 2 is that it does not havethe antenna 10 a 1 for communicating with the radio base station 20, theposition detecting mean 10 a 8, and the GPS 10 a 9.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a TV set servingas a speech input terminal of the present invention. The difference fromthe stationary home telephone 30 a in FIG. 5 includes a televisionapparatus TV 30 b 10, a TV set control mean 30 b 8, and a camera CM 30 c9. The TV control mean 30 b 8 is a mean for programming for recoding aTV broadcast program, and setting a channel, and is generally referredas a set top box.

The camera CM 30 c 9 is used for transmitting an image for conversationto the other party, and monitoring a room with an image.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a PC serving asa speech input terminal of the present invention. The difference fromthe stationary home telephone 30 a in FIG. 5 is that there is no TV setcontrol mean. The operation for the PC is conducted through a touchpanel or a speech. A keyboard suppressed from the drawing may beconnected for operating the PC.

The camera CM 30 c 9 shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 may be installed on thespeech input terminal in FIG. 2 to FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of an embodiment ofa speech portal server 50 of the present invention. The speech portalserver 50, which is a characteristic part of the present invention,comprises a communication mean 501 for communicating with the Internetnetwork 40, a processing apparatus 502 for processing the entire speechportal server 50, a speech recognizing mean 503 for receiving speechdata Vin, recognizing it with a recognition dictionary 504, andproviding text data Vtext1, a command converting mean 505 for using acommand text dictionary 506 to convert the recognized speech Vtext1 intoa command and an object Vtext2, a conversation control mean 507 forcontrolling a conversation with the speech input terminal and differentinformation ASP's, a speech synthesizing mean 508 for synthesizing aspeech with a speech text Vtext3 from the conversation control mean, anda Web browser 509.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of the speechrecognizing mean 503 of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention. The present embodiment features that the speech recognizingmean is provided with two recognizing engines. Namely, the speechrecognizing mean 503 comprises a connected speech recognizing engine 503a for recognizing a relatively long speech, and a word speechrecognizing engine 503 b for recognizing a relatively short speech suchas a command.

The connected speech recognizing engine 503 a uses a connected speechrecognition dictionary 504 a for recognizing a speech, and the workspeech recognizing engine 503 b uses a word speech recognitiondictionary 504 b for recognizing a speech.

A comprehensive recognition evaluating mean 503 c comprehensivelyevaluates recognition results of the individual recognizing engines.Generally, the connected speech recognizing engine uses a recognizingmethod for using a transition probability model between words, andpresents an increased number of recognition errors when a short wordsuch as a command is entered since knowledge on the preceding and thefollowing words is not used.

Thus, it is required for the comprehensive recognition evaluating meanto comprehensively determine which output from the recognizing enginesis correct.

The following section specifically describes the operation of thecomprehensive recognition evaluating mean 503 c while using a specificexample, and referring to FIG. 10 to FIG. 13.

FIG. 10 to FIG. 11 show examples where a speech time is used to switchthe recognition results from the two recognizing engines. Thecomprehensive recognition evaluating mean 503 c compares the speech dataVin with a threshold, and switches to S when Vin short and switches to Lwhen Vin is long in the speech time evaluation.

FIG. 10 is a figure for describing an operation of the speechrecognizing mean of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention, and shows a state where a speech “

” with a relatively short speech time is entered. In this case, thecomprehensive recognition evaluating mean is switched to the S side, andprovides an output Vtext1 of a string “

”. Here, the maximum speech time from the word speech recognitiondictionary is selected for the threshold.

FIG. 11 is a figure for describing an operation of the speechrecognizing mean of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention, and shows a state where a speech data “

” with a relatively long speech time is entered. In this case, thecomprehensive recognition evaluating mean is switched to the L side, andprovides an output Vtext1 of a string “

”.

FIG. 12 to FIG. 13 show examples where a speech time is not evaluated,but the resultant string length from the recognizing engine is comparedwith a threshold.

FIG. 12 is a figure for describing an operation of the speechrecognizing mean of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention, and shows a state where a speech “

” with a relatively short speech time is entered. In this case, thecomprehensive recognition evaluating mean is switched to the S side, andprovides an output Vtext1 of a string “

”.

FIG. 13 is a figure for describing an operation of the speechrecognizing mean of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention, and shows a state where a speech data “

” with a relatively long speech time is entered. In this case, thecomprehensive recognition evaluating mean is switched to the L side, andprovides an output Vtext1 of a string “

”.

It is set that the engine provides a string “

=?” for indicating that the recognition is impossible when therecognizing engine receives a speech which is largely different from thedictionary. In this case, when the threshold is selected to a propervalue (example: the maximum length of the command strings), an optimalstring is provided, thereby improving the overall recognitioncapability.

As describe in the two types of methods above, when the speech data is acommand “

”, a problem that a string “

” is provided when there is only the connected speech recognizing engineis solved.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a constitution of the commandconverting mean 505 of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention. When the command converting mean receives a string Vtext1from the speech recognizing mean 503, a command string search 505 a usesthe command text dictionary to determine if a command string isincluded.

FIG. 15 is a figure for showing an example of the speech command textdictionary of the present invention. The command text dictionary 506includes a command ID and command name 1 to command name 5, and anycommands with the same command ID are treated in the same way. A string“

” and a string “

” are determined as an identical command ID, D01.

Command text strings in FIG. 15 are roughly classified into commandscorresponding to the individual information ASP's (NO 1 to NO 8),commands for speech conversation (NO 9 to NO 10), and commands forscreen operations (NO 11 to NO 22).

Though command string search assumes a complete match, it may bedesigned that the search can be conducted for a case where a partialerror is included as described later in FIG. 23 to FIG. 24.

Object extraction 505 b for extracting a string of an object other thana command is conducted after the command string search 505 a. Thisprocessing is a processing for extracting a command transmitted to theindividual APS's, and an object which is a subject of the search.

FIG. 16 is a drawing for describing an operation of the commandconverting mean 505 of the speech portal server 50 of the presentinvention. When a result Vtext1 of the speech recognizing mean is “

” the command text search 505 a refers to the command text dictionary506, determines that the command string is “

” and determines that the command ID is D01.

Then the object extraction 505 b determines that the part other than thecommand string is an object, and an object “

” is extracted. Thus, a result Vtext2 of the object extracting mean 505b is provided as “command ID=D01, Object=

”.

Though the entire string other than the command characters is assumed asan object in the object extracting mean 505 b, it is possible to conducta morpheme analysis to remove “

” from “

” for the extraction.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a conversationcontrol mean 507 of the speech portal server 50. The conversationcontrol mean 507 comprises a conversation processing mean 507 a forcontrolling the entire part, basic conversation rules 507 b for speechconversation, a terminal data control mean 507 c for serving as aninterface with the speech input terminal, an ASP control mean 507 d forserving as an interface with the individual information ASP's, and aspeech synthesizing control mean 507 e.

The basic conversation rules 507 b store rules commonly used among theindividual information ASP's, and conversation rules specific to theindividual information ASP's are downloaded from the individualinformation ASP's.

When the conversation processing mean 507 a receives Vtext2 of outputfrom the speech recognizing mean 505, determines a command ID,determines which information ASP it corresponds to, and transmits thecommand ID and an object as ASPDataOut to the corresponding informationASP.

When the corresponding ASP provides ASP control mean 507 b with a searchresult as ASPDataIn, the terminal control 507 c provides the speechinput terminal which has requested the search with TdataOut. The speechinput terminal shown the data of the search result.

When a synthesized speech from the string is provided, the speechsynthesizing control mean 507 e provides a speech sequence as Vtext3, aspeech Vout synthesized by the speech synthesizing mean 508 istransmitted to the speech input terminal, and a speaker provides sounds.

When there is a data input other than a speech from the speech inputterminal, it is received as TdataIn.

The conversation control mean 507 may be constituted with a Voice XMLbrowser for speech conversation.

The following section describes constitutions of the individualinformation ASP's while referring to FIG. 18 to FIG. 21.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a navigationinformation ASP of the present invention. The navigation information ASPis a provider serving map information and path search information, andcomprises an interface 60 a 100, a fuzzy search mean 60 a 200, a pathsearch mean 60 a 500, and a conversation rule processing mean 600 a 700.The individual means refer to individual dictionaries to processrequests.

The fuzzy search mean 60 a 200 refers to a landmark DB 60 a 300, whichis a database for landmark information, and a landmark INDEX 60 a 400dictionary for the fuzzy search. The detailed operation is describedlater.

The path search mean 60 a 500 refers to Map DB 60 a 600 which are mapdata, and searches a path from a current position to a destination. Thispath search is a general path search processing, and the detaileddescription is skipped.

The conversation rule processing mean 60 a 700 is a mean for processingconversation rules specific to the individual information ASP's, and theconversation rules 60 b 800 are used as rules other than baseconversation rules for the speech portal server 50.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a musicinformation ASP of the present invention. Compared with the ASP in FIG.18, the music information ASP does not include what corresponds to thepath search mean, and its contents are a music DB 60 b 300, a musicINDEX 60 b 400, and conversation rules for music 60 b 800.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing a constitution of a TV broadcastprogram information ASP of the present invention. It differs from theASP in FIG. 19 in contents. Its contents include a TV broadcast programDB 60 c 300, a broadcast program INDEX 60 c 300, a broadcast programINDEX 60 c 400 and rules for broadcast programs 60 c 800.

The TV broadcast programs mean at least one type of information ofinformation on TV broadcast programs, information on CS broadcastprograms, and information of CATV broadcast programs in thisspecification.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of a telephoneinformation ASP of the present invention. It has contents different fromthose for the ASP in FIG. 19, and is provided with a telephone DB 60 d300, a telephone INDEX 60 d 400, and conversation rules for telephone 60d 800.

FIG. 22 shows an example for a speech operation menu screen of thepresent invention. The speech menu is provided with speech menu iconsaccording to the individual information ASP's. The icons relating to thenavigation information ASP includes “

”, “

”, “

”, and “

”.

The icons relating to the music information ASP includes “

”. The icons relating to the broadcast program ASP includes “

”, “

”. The icons relating to the telephone information ASP includes “

”.

The present invention allows a method for entering an item from thespeech menu and a method for entering everything including an object.For example, it is possible to enter a speech of “

” for a destination search without pressing the menu.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram for showing a constitution of the fuzzysearch mean 60 a 200 for the individual information ASP's of the presentinvention. The other fuzzy search means 60 b 200, 60 c 200, and 60 d 200have a constitution same as that of the fuzzy search mean 60 a 200.

The fuzzy search mean 60 a 200 comprises a search engine 60 a 100 andtwo-character INDEX generation 60 a 220 in FIG. 23. The search engine 60a 100 and the two-character INDEX generation 60 a 220 search whilereferring to the landmark DB 60 a 300, and the landmark INDEX 60 a 400.

Since the landmark DB stores large amount of data up to several millionof items, it is required that the landmark DB has generated thetwo-character INDEX before hand. The present invention features a fastand fuzzy search with this two-character INDEX generation processing.The fuzzy search here does not mean that meaning is fuzzy but thatentered words are searched when there is a partial error in a string (apartially added string, a partially missing string, a random stringorder, and a partial error string).

FIG. 24 shows an example of the fuzzy search for the individualinformation ASP's of the present invention. This example sets adestination to “

”.

First, a search key word 60 a 300 key of “

” is entered, a processing for extracting every two characters 60 a 211is conducted.

Then, a landmark INDEX search 60 a 212 is conducted for the every twocharacters.

The landmark INDEX search 20 a 212 searches the landmark DB, andextracts hit DB records.

The extracted records are sorted in the order of the number of hitcharacters, and an output processing 60 a 214 is conducted, and a list60 a 200 res is provided as a search result.

Since the INDEX search by every two characters is conducted as describedabove, it has characteristics of the fast search and the fuzzy search.

When “

” of “

” is included in a search object, if the landmark DB does not has acorrespondence, it ignores it. On the other hand, even if “

” is entered, what relating to it hit.

Thus, it has an effect that a name of a place or a landmark which occursto mind can be entered.

It is also possible to design such that multiple search results areshown on the speech input terminal, and a speech instruction prompts forselecting the search subjects.

Though the present embodiment uses two-character INDEX generationprocessing for the search as shown in FIG. 23 to FIG. 24, athree-character INDEX, or a four-character INDEX is also applicable.

When information includes many numbers and alphabets, thethree-character INDEX generation or the four-character INDEX generationpresents less unnecessary search output compared with the two-characterINDEX processing.

The following section describes specific communication procedures amongthe speech input terminal, the speech portal server 50, and theinformation ASP 60 while referring to FIG. 25 to FIG. 28.

FIG. 25 shows a communication procedure among the speech input terminal,the speech portal server, and the navigation information ASP of thepresent invention. Here, the communication procedure among the speechinput terminal Mobile PC 10 c, the speech portal server 50, and thenavigation information ASP 60 a, and a communication procedure withanother information ASP is almost similar.

First, when the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c sends a connectionrequest to the speech portal server 50, the speech portal server 50provides the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c with a speech outputof “

” through speech. Simultaneously, the speech menu in FIG. 21 is shown.

Then, the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c conducts a direct speechinput of “

” through speech.

The speech portal server 50 recognizes it, and responds to it as “

” through speech.

Then, a speech for a command of “

” or “

” is entered.

When “

” is entered, the speech portal server 50 returns a speech response of “

” to the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c, sends data comprising acommand ID “D01” and an object “

” to the navigation information ASP 60 a, and receives a search result.Here, a search result (two hits), and a content (XXX, YYY) are returned.

The speech portal server 50 responds through speech as “

” according to the search result. Simultaneously the display of thespeech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c shows the content of the searchresult.

Then, an speech instruction “

” is entered through speech, the speech portal server 50 recognizes thespeech, and provides a corresponding speech output of “

”.

Further, it request the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c for acurrent position, obtains current position information, and sends a pathsearch command and its parameters to the navigation information ASP 60 abased on this information.

The speech portal server 50 receives path information and mapinformation as the search result from the navigation ASP, and providesthe speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c with it, and responds as “

” through speech.

When “

” is entered in the communication procedure described above, theprocedure returns to “

” again, which is suppressed from the drawing.

When a selection is made from multiple search results, though an examplefor selecting through speech is presented, a touch panel is provided,and the touch panel is used for the selection. If this is the case, acorrespondence between the content of the search and the coordinate ofthe touch panel must be determined before hand.

Though the Mobile PC 10 c is used as the speech input terminal, the PDA10 a, and the mobile TEL 10 b can communicate with the navigationinformation ASP in FIG. 25. In this case, the navigation system is ahuman. Since the current position of the own speech input terminal isknown, it is possible to shown the current position information andsearch for a destination landmark.

FIG. 26 is a drawing for showing a communication procedure among thespeech input terminal, the speech portal server, and the musicinformation ASP. This is a communication procedure where a speech inputMobile PC 10 c receives a music content service from the musicinformation ASP 60 b through the speech portal server 50.

First, when the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c sends a connectionrequest to the speech portal server 50, the speech portal server 50provides the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c with a speech outputof “

” through speech. Simultaneously, the speech menu in FIG. 21 is shown.

Then, the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c conducts a direct speechinput of “Mariah Carey

” through speech.

The speech portal server 50 recognizes it, and responds to it as “MariahCarey

?” through speech.

Then, a speech for a command of “

” or “

” is entered.

When “

” is entered, the speech portal server 50 returns a speech response of “

” to the speech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c, sends data comprising acommand ID “M01” and an object “Mariah Carey

” to the music information ASP 60 b, and receives a search result.

Here, a search result (three hits), and a content (XXX, YYY, ZZZ) arereturned.

The speech portal server 50 responds through speech as “

” according to the search result. Simultaneously the display of thespeech input terminal Mobile PC 10 c shows the content of the searchresult.

Then, an speech instruction “

” is entered through speech, the speech portal server 50 recognizes thespeech, and provides a corresponding speech output of “

”. Simultaneously, the music information ASP is instructed to downloadthe third music tune.

With this, a speech response of “

” and a corresponding music content are downloaded to the speech inputterminal Mobile PC 10 c.

When a search result includes only one item, after receiving a responseof whether OK or not, a download starts.

FIG. 27 shows a communication procedure among the speech input terminal,the speech portal server, and the TV broadcast program information ASPof the present invention. This is a communication procedure where aspeech input terminal TV 30 b and a PC 30C receive a TV broadcastprogram content service from the broadcast program information ASP 60 cthrough the speech portal server 50.

First, when the speech input terminal sends a connection request to thespeech portal server 50, the speech portal server 50 provides the speechinput terminal with a speech output of “

” through speech. Simultaneously, the speech menu in FIG. 21 is shown.

Then, the speech input terminal conducts a direct speech input of “

” through speech.

The speech portal server 50 recognizes it, and responds to it as “

” through speech.

Then, a speech for a command of “

” or “

” is entered.

When “

” is entered, the speech portal server 50 returns a speech response of “

” to the speech input terminal, sends data comprising a command ID “T01”and an object “

” to the broadcast program information ASP 60 c, and receives a searchresult.

Here, a search result (two hits), and a content (XXX, YYY) are returned.

The speech portal server 50 responds through speech as “

” according to the search result. Simultaneously the display of thespeech input terminal shows the content of the search result.

Then, an speech instruction “

” is entered through speech, the speech portal server 50 recognizes thespeech, and provides a corresponding speech output of “

”.

As the result, a channel corresponding to the TV broadcast program isset, thereby allowing viewing a weather forecast service.

When a search result includes only one item, after receiving a responseof whether OK or not, a channel is set.

When a weather forecast service is not being broadcasted, a channel canbe programmed. In this case, the speech portal server 50 provides aguidance asking if programming is conducted or not, and the programmingends when it is responded.

For TV broadcast programs viewed every week, programming for every weekis available.

FIG. 28 shows a communication procedure among the speech input terminal,the speech portal server, and the telephone information ASP of thepresent invention. This is a communication procedure where a speechinput terminal home telephone 30 a and a Mobile TEL 10 b receive atelephone information content service from the telephone information ASP60 d through the speech portal server 50.

First, when the speech input terminal sends a connection request to thespeech portal server 50, the speech portal server 50 provides the speechinput terminal with a speech output of “

” through speech. Simultaneously, the speech menu in FIG. 21 is shown.

Then, the speech input terminal conducts a direct speech input of “

” through speech.

The speech portal server 50 recognizes it, and responds to it as “

” through speech.

Then, a speech for a command of “

” or “

” is entered.

When “

” is entered, the speech portal server 50 returns a speech response of “

” to the speech input terminal, sends data comprising a command ID “P01”and an object “

” to the telephone information ASP 60 d, and receives a search result.

Here, a search result (two hits), and a content (XXX, YYY) are returned.

The speech portal server 50 responds through speech as “

?” according to the search result. Simultaneously the display of thespeech input terminal shows the content of the search result.

Then, an speech instruction “

” is entered through speech, the speech portal server 50 recognizes thespeech, and provides a corresponding speech output of “

”.

Specifically, when a search result includes only one item, afterreceiving a response of whether OK or not, a telephone call isconducted.

With the present invention, a speech portal server recognizes a speechentered from a speech input terminal, the speech is separated into acommand text and an object text, information stored in an applicationservice provider is searched with fuzziness based on the separatedtexts, and an intended information is provided for the speech inputterminal even if there is a partial error in the object text.

Also, since a speech recognizing engine of the speech portal server isconstituted such that it comprises two speech recognizing engines of aconnected speech recognizing engine suitable for a long sentence, and aword speech recognizing engine for a short sentence such as a commandfor comprehensive evaluation, the recognition capability for speechconversation increases.

Further, since a navigation information ASP, a music information ASP, abroadcast program information ASP, and a telephone information ASP areprovided as application service providers (ASP's), mobile speech inputterminals such as a PDA, a Mobile TEL, and a Mobile Car PC, and homespeech input terminals such as a home telephone, a TV set, and a PC canreceive optimal information according to their individual requirement.

1. A speech input system comprising: a speech input terminal providedwith a speech input/output mean, a Web browser, and a display mean fordisplaying an access status to an external system and a search result; aspeech portal server provided with a speech recognizing mean forreceiving a speech from said speech input terminal to recognize it as atext, a command converting mean for checking the recognized text with acommand text dictionary, and separating it into a command text and anobject text, and a conversation control mean; and an application serviceprovider which is provided with an information search mean for searchinginformation based on the command text and the object text received fromsaid speech portal server through a communication means, and serves saidspeech portal server with a search result; wherein said informationsearch mean of the application service provider extracts every (n)characters from the received object text, and searches for informationbased on n-character INDEX created beforehand.
 2. The speech inputsystem according to claim 1, wherein said application service provideris a navigation information application service provider which servesmap information.
 3. The speech input system according to claim 2,wherein said application service provider is a music informationapplication service provider which serves music information.
 4. Thespeech input system according to claim 3, wherein said applicationservice provider is a broadcast program information application serviceprovider which serves information on at least one of a TV broadcastprogram, a CS broadcast program, and a CATV broadcast program.
 5. Thespeech input system according to claim 4, wherein said applicationservice provider is a telephone information application service providerwhich serves telephone information.